Apple extends MobileMe trial following UK billing glitch

Following a billing error that caused "free" MobileMe trial customers in the …

So far, Apple's rollout of the new MobileMe hasn't been going particularly smoothly. As a result of outages, slow "push" functionality, and lots of glitches, Apple gave everyone an extra month of MobileMe service. The issues haven't quite stopped, though, and now MacRumors has published another apologetic e-mail from Apple. In the e-mail, the company apologizes for recent UK billing issues related to free trials, and announces that it's giving away yet another month of service.

According to the e-mail, whenever users create a trial account, a £0.50 preauthorization is placed on their cards to verify the account. This type of thing is pretty common, as the hold is lifted at some point in the near future, and no one minds. Unfortunately for MobileMe customers, Apple got a bit digit-happy with the billing, and placed a £121 preauthorization on credit cards instead. An extra £121 on your credit card is never fun, but things are even better for debit card users. In that case, the money is actually removed from the account, only to reappear between a week and a month later.

Apple is "working to have these holds removed earlier" so people get their money back, but it's also offering 30 more days of free MobileMe service to these customers. At this point, MobileMe trial users in the UK have four months to try the service before they have to pay anything, but the free trial experience doesn't seem to have been very pleasant (or free, for that matter) thus far.